There is nothing more intoxicating than power. There is nothing more crazy-making than hard evidence of abuse stemming from the addiction to that power. Make no mistake: addicts of all stripes do and say whatever is necessary -- wrapped alternately in charm and bravado -- to ensure their next fix. And they will continue to do so unabated.
People who live with alcoholics or drug addicts often find themselves acting in ways completely contrary to their behavior. They find themselves inexplicably prone to public and private histrionics of which they "never-in-a-million-years" thought themselves capable. This outrageous behavior alternates with benign resignation that only enables the addict.
They are just so chronically frustrated from the unrelenting assault of the disregard and disrespect and despicable behavior of the addict outside the bans of the relationship. Even worse, is the daily confrontation of the addict's dismissive attitude. Addicts are geniuses at constructing justifications for their behavior which they then deliver with such casual affectation that it sends one into white hot anger.
Psychological counselors and members of Alcoholics Anonymous call this "crazy-making behavior." It is a reaction of a person abused by someone to whom they have given power in the relationship. It happens when all of that person's experiences and perceptions say one thing and the addict says something completely contradictory to that understanding. Being forced to accept "the addict's reality" over one's own knowledge of the facts and perceptions is known to cause "induced" mental illness.
It is time for the American people to stop enabling the Bush administration's addiction to absolute power -- power outside the boundaries of the U.S. Constitution.
It is time to gain confidence in the avalanche of evidence of their willingness to do anything to preserve that power.
- Richard Clarke, former White House Counter-Terrorism Czar testified before Congress that the administration used the 9/11 attacks to "sell the war" to the American people.
- Tom Maertens, National Security Council director for non-proliferation for both the Clinton and Bush administrations backed Clarke up with his own eye-witness testimony.
- Three-star General Donald Kerrick who served as National Security Adviser under Clinton who provided transitional assistance inside the Bush White House for several months witnessed the fixing of intelligence to the policy.
- The President's own Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill, a member of the National Security Council, admitted upon his retirement that there were planning sessions on the Iraq invasion months before 9/11, and when the Towers fell, those plans were kicked into high gear.
- Greg Thielmann, former Director of the Office of Strategic, Proliferation, and Military Issues in the State Department who was stunned to see the White House use the "uranium from Niger" war justification when that claim had been so thoroughly debunked.
- Former Ambassador Joseph Wilson who personally debunked the uranium story after traveling to Niger to investigate the claims.
And now we have the Downing Street Memo that provides "from the horse's mouth" proof that the President and his most chief advisers are guilty. It is the right and responsibility of the U.S. Senate to examine the nature of that guilt.
It is time for Congress to take back the power it abdicated three years ago. It is time to cut off the blank check. As it did three decades ago, it is time for Congress to demand full disclosure and accountability and ask:
- What did they know? When did they know it?
- Demand an exit strategy that internationalizes the defense and support of Iraq so our American troops can come home --- they have done their duty. It is time for Congress and the President to do theirs.
As Tim Russert pointed out yesterday to the Apologist-In-Chief Ken Mehlman, those drunk on power have driven, "1,669 Americans [bravely to their deaths] in Iraq, 1,532 of those after the President said major combat operations were over...12,762 Americans wounded or injured, 12,000 of those after the President said major combat was over. This memo seems to suggest that the head of British Intelligence told Prime Minister Blair that there was little discussion in Washington to plan for the aftermath of military action..."
This is more crazy-making behavior. How dare the President (through his top staff and supporters) admonish U.S. citizens --- to whom he is amenable --- as unpatriotic for wondering about an exit strategy? How dare the administration continue to pound the pulpit about WMD's in Iraq when there was never --- NEVER --- any credible evidence of such?
America, it is time to say, "ENOUGH!" Congress it is time to do an intervention.
Sands through the hourglass of America's future are in a free-fall. Someone needs to upturn it and reset our Constitutional clock.
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